Missing
by luvmydogz
Summary: The Shredder is fed up with the turtles always getting in his way. So he has come up with a plan that he hopes will lead to the end of the turtles once and for all; a plan that puts one brother's life on the line. Can the others get to him in time?
1. Taken

Hello everybody!

So, this is my first crack at writing a turtles fic! My free time is somewhat limited, so I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update, but if I get a strong enough response, I will certainly try my best!

Enjoy! Oh, and I of course don't own the turtles.

Chapter 1 – Taken

"Mikey, slow down! This is supposed to be a group run!"

"If I went as slow as you guys, I'd be an old turtle by the time we got back to the lair!"

Leo could only shake his head and sigh to himself as he attempted to keep pace with his youngest brother. At the same time, however, he had two other brothers to watch, and so opted instead to hang back and keep them within his sights. At least, this is how he explained it to himself. Even he didn't like to admit that one of his brothers could get the best of him, but it was hard to ignore the speed and agility that came easily to his baby bro. He once again found his mind wandering to the possibility that Mikey could be an amazing ninja if he chose to devote even half of his current video game playing time to his studies. But, Mikey was Mikey, and Leo couldn't imagine his brother ever parting with his somewhat childish ways. In some respects, he was jealous of his brother's ability to maintain a positive outlook on life no matter what hardships came his family's way. He knew his light-hearted attitude was often misconstrued by their enemies as inexperience and stupidity – a mistake that often gave them the upper hand. Yes, Mikey was certainly a unique ninja, and he wouldn't want it any other way.

The sound of Mikey's laughter echoing back from up ahead snapped Leo back to his senses. Checking his surroundings, he could make out the facial expressions of the two brothers that had not broken out ahead of him during the training run. Raph, as usual, was wearing an angry scowl, most likely annoyed by the fact that Mikey was defeating him in any way. Clearly, his much bulkier muscles were slowing him down. Leo made a mental note to talk to his brother once again about the extra weight training he was putting in, but he doubted Raph would want to lose his advantage over Mikey in their constant wrestling matches.

On his other side he could make out his other brother, Donatello, whose attention was entirely focused on maintaining their current speed. There was no indication on his face that he had heard Mikey's banter, or, perhaps more likely, that he was at all bothered by it. Leo could always count on Donny to keep a cool head through any situation. He looked at him as his partner in level-headedness – the brother who could help temper Raph's anger and Mikey's ludicrousness, which often did not make for the best combination.

"What's the matter, Raph? Can't keep up with the Battle Nexus Champion?"

"Ooooh Mikey, when I catch you, I'm going to beat your shell into next week!"

"Then I guess I'm safe, cuz it doesn't look like your slow shell is ever going to catch me! It's a repeat of the Battle Nexus, all over again!"

"That's it! You are soooo dead!"

Leo thought about jumping in and cutting off the argument, but he found himself instead pleased to see Raph's speed finally increasing. While he didn't think anger towards his brother was the healthiest motivation, he was still content with the increasing effort Raph was giving to his run. He just hoped Mikey could actually keep up his speed until he calmed down, because with the color red that Raph's face was turning under his mask, Leo doubted that even he and Donnie together could keep their sai-weilding brother down.

Ever-alert, Leo noticed right away when Mikey stopped running ahead. Given the current state of Raph's anger, he immediately knew that something must be up. Increasing his speed, he noticed his brothers do the same as Mikey reached for his nunchuks on the roof ahead. Leaping onto the building, weapons drawn, the three remaining brothers took up stances around the youngest, who was currently staring down a foe at the other end of the roof. Looking up, Leo was granted by the face of none other than Karai, who was surrounded by a mere handful of elite foot ninja.

"So glad you guys could make it to the party! I was beginning to think I'd be stuck making conversation alone with these guys. It's always so awkward, really. I never know what to talk about –"

"Enough!" commanded Karai, finally stepping forward. "Please spare us the misfortune of listening to you speak any longer."

"Ha! I couldn't have said it better myself!" laughed Raph, smacking the back of Mikey's shell. In response, Mikey just crossed his arms. Whatever retort he had planned was cut-off by Leonardo, who stepped forward to meet Karai, one sword pointed out toward her.

"What do you want, Karai? It is not like you to just hang out on rooftops with such a small band of ninja."

"Yeah, I'd say the odds aren't exactly in your favor," added Raph, spinning his sai in preparation for a fight.

"We have a very specific agenda, Leonardo," answered Karai, directing her answer only to the oldest turtle. She let her eyes roam over the remaining brothers before landing on Leonardo once again. "In fact, I think it is time for us to make our exit."

As she finished speaking, a flying craft lowered from the clouds above their heads, surprising the brother's with its entrance as it didn't make a sound.

"What the heck is that?" yelled Raph, momentarily distracted by the appearance of the craft.

"It must be some kind of alien technology, because I don't even hear an engine" responded Donnie, equally entranced by the flying object. Both brothers, however, immediately returned their attention to Karai when she spoke again.

"Elite ninja! You know our objective!" she yelled while reaching into her sleeve. In the next moment, a number of smoke pellets were thrown to the grown, shrouding all present in a familiar white smoke. Caught off guard, the turtle brothers couldn't help but collapse into coughing fits until the smoke had dissipated. When their visibility returned, Karai and the elite ninja were gone, along with the aircraft.

"What the shell was that?" Raph wheezed out, eyes still tearing from the smoke.

"We are definitely missing something here," added Donnie, also still choking on the smoke as he recovered from the attack.

Leo listened to his brothers as he cleared the remaining smoke from his lungs, looking around in an effort to discern Karai's purpose in meeting them on the rooftop. As he completed a scan of the surrounding area, his heart seized up as he realized what was amiss.

"Where's Mikey?"


	2. Anger and Confusion

Wow! This took a lot longer to get up than I thought it would. My bad. But, good things come to those who wait, right? Right! So, I hope you all enjoy!

On with the story!

Chapter 2: Anger and Confusion

"Where's Mikey?"

At Leo's words, the heads of the two remaining brothers immediately shot up and began scanning the surrounding area, calling out Michelangelo's name. When there was no answer, they all began searching the rooftop and even the alleys down below, despite the growing sense of dread that pervaded the thoughts of all three brothers. Soon, they found themselves back on the rooftop, all having reached the same conclusion but none willing to voice it aloud.

"They took him," Don finally stated, with a hint of disbelief creeping into his tone. "We were right here and they took him."

"This doesn't make any sense!" Raph yelled out, wide eyes turning almost desperately towards the eldest turtle as his hands balled into fists. "Why would they want Mikey?"

Leonardo, meanwhile, had yet to look up at his brothers. His shock at Michelangelo's disappearance was quickly fading, giving way to the much stronger feeling of guilt which always crawled into his heart when something happened to his brothers. As leader, the health and safety of the younger turtles were his responsibility – the thought of any of them in enemy hands, out of his protective reach, threatened to tear him up inside.

So lost in thought was the blue-clad turtle that he failed to notice Donatello repeatedly calling his name. He was quickly snapped back to attention, however, when Raph took it upon himself to punch his non-responsive brother in the beak, throwing him back a few feet to land on his shell.

Leo could hear his purple-clad brother yelling at Raph in the background as he brought a shaky hand to his beak. When it came back with a dribble of blood on it, he sighed and stood up, trying to wipe the rest of the blood away with his other hand.

"Punching Leo isn't going to help things, Raph! Fighting amongst ourselves is only wasting time!"

"What's wasting time is fearless over there falling into his usual self-loathing guilt trip! Mikey is in Shredder's hands and he's daydreaming!"

"Raph! That's not fair!"

"It's alright, Donnie," Leo called as he approached his squabbling brothers, coming to a stop in front of Raph and lifting his arm to a put a hand on his shoulder. He smiled slightly to himself when he saw Raph flinch, but quickly sobered up as he remembered the situation.

"Raph's right. We're wasting time. There is clearly nothing here – let's head back to the lair and alert Master Splinter to what has happened."

The eldest turtle would have continued, but he was quickly cut-off by an irate Raphael, who slapped his arm off his shoulder and moved to stand face to face with his older brother.

"Head back to the lair? I don't know what you're thinking, Leo, but I'm pretty sure Karai did not take Mikey _home._ Going back there isn't going to help – we have to go find him!"

"Look Raph, I know how you feel, but blindly searching the city isn't going to help anyone right now!" Leo answered, not backing down in the slightest from his brother's challenge.

"Dammit Leo! Mikey is –"

Raph would have continued ranting, but Donny's hand firmly grasping his bicep cut off his train of thought. He looked down at his younger brother, whose eyes clearly held a note of desperation as he began to speak.

"Leo's right, Raph. Let's go back to the lair. Arguing about it here is not going to get anything done."

There was a moment of silence as Raph considered this request. The stare he leveled at the ground was so intense that it threatened to bore a hole through the roof. Part of him was aching to go out and tear apart the entire city until his younger brother was found, but as he calmed down, another part of him was starting to realize that Leo and Donnie were right. They needed a plan.

'I'm sorry, Mikey,' he thought to himself before looking back up at his brothers.

"Fine, we go back" he conceded, to which both his brothers visibly relaxed. "But if we don't find something soon, I'm going with plan B and tearing up the city."

Leo returned his hand to his brother's shoulder, giving it a slight squeeze in hopes of offering some semblance of comfort. "If we don't find something soon, then we'll be right there with you."

Don nodded in agreement to Leo's statement, and then all three brothers turned in the direction of the lair and broke out into a run. As they leapt over the rooftops, all three shared the same thought.

'Hold on, Mikey.'

---

It wasn't long before the three remaining turtles reached the lair, all of them bursting through the door in a rush to seek counsel from their mentor. All immediately halted, however, when they sensed that Splinter was not alone in the lair.

Splinter looked up at his sons' arrival, seemingly scanning them for something. The second presence also made itself visible, and at its appearance, all three turtles immediately relaxed.

"Leatherhead! What are you doing here?" Donnie asked.

"Forget that! We have more important things to do than play 20 questions." Raph interrupted, continuing his original path to stand in front of their father. "Master, we –"

"Where is Michelangelo?" Splinter asked, cutting off his red-clad son mid-sentence.

"He was taken, Master," Leonardo stated, stepping forward to kneel in front of their father. "We were confronted by Karai and two elites, but their only goal was to obscure our vision long enough to take Michelangelo. I did not realize their plan until it was too late. I am sorry." When he finished, he bowed his head to the floor.

Splinter looked stricken at this confession, sad eyes turning back to meet with those of his crocodilian companion.

"Then it is as I feared," LH stated, clasping his hands together as he turned his head towards the ground. "I am too late. I am so sorry, my friends."

"What? Why are you sorry?" Donnie asked, coming down to join the rest. Leo and Raph similarly looked to the mutant crocodile, clearly both thinking the same question.

"Leatherhead came here tonight to give us a warning," Splinter started, looking to his remaining sons.

"I knew that the Shredder was targeting Michelangelo. And I'm afraid I also know why."

-----

And there you have it! Chapter 2! Hopefully the next chapter will not take me this long to post, but there are no guarantees. Thanks for reading!


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